Where Am I?

This strange marshland is dark and hot-sometimes beautiful and sometimes dangerous. Wild animals hiss and wail in the muddy swamps. To travel here you must ride in a boat. The waterways are shallow and clogged with growing plants, and they go in every direction. Unless you’re used to them, the tree-buried waterways all look the same. You could get lost in a minute!

Boatmen move slowly and steer carefully so that their boats won’t get stuck in the tough saw grass growing on the slippery banks. The roots of giant swamp trees-mangrove and cypress-rise up as if they were climbing right out of the water.

A mother alligator lies quietly in the thick mud. But she isn’t sleeping. She’s guarding her eggs, buried under a mound of sun heated mud and ole leaves. What seems to be a floating a log may be a hungry alligator hunting for food.

he air is thick and heavy with dampness. Insects hum and buzz. The green forests are crowded with tangled vines. Some trees are dressed in ferns on which orchid flowers are growing. Tree snakes coil around hidden branches. Under some trees it’s as dark as night even when the sun shines.